One of the ways to find a top-rated moving company for your upcoming house move is to check their online reputation as an extra guarantee that you\u2019ll be dealing with a reputable mover you can actually trust with your belongings.<\/p>\n
And how do you do that? It\u2019s a fairly easy thing to do: you visit the best movers review websites and take a look at what customers wrote about the companies you\u2019re currently reviewing \u2013 their level of professionalism, range of services, prices and even attitude.<\/p>\n
In other words, you read moving reviews.<\/p>\n
In a perfect world, that would be enough. Sadly, the world we\u2019re living in is far from being flawless, so various types of moving frauds, rogue moving companies and unscrupulous movers are not that uncommon within the moving and storage industry. Well, if we did live in a perfect world, we wouldn\u2019t need to waste time to check whether a moving company is licensed, insured, and reputable in the first place, right?<\/p>\n
So, if you\u2019re looking for a reputable moving company for your upcoming house move, like you should, then the following tips for spotting fake moving reviews will enable you to sift through the fiction to find the facts.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not too hard to guess why fake reviews about movers exist. Basically, it\u2019s about the problems they create for all the people who are searching for trustworthy moving companies in order to hire their quality services. Bogus moving reviews further complicate the choice of a truly good mover so it\u2019s important that you know how to detect potential red flags while browsing through consumer reviews so that you manage to separate fact from fiction.<\/p>\n
Fake positive moving reviews and 5-star ratings<\/em><\/strong> are meant to boost the online reputation of a moving company in a desperate attempt to cover poor moving services, unprofessional and incompetent behavior, and even rude attitude. For bad moving companies, fake customer reviews seem like one of the few remaining options to lure people to book their services.<\/p>\n Dishonest companies buy fake positive reviews from unscrupulous fakesters who don\u2019t really mind pocketing some easy cash, make their employees leave false excellent reviews about their own company, or they encourage their customers to leave 5-star ratings about their \u201coutstanding\u201d service by usually offering them a price discount.<\/p>\n Fake negative moving reviews and 1-star ratings<\/em><\/strong> are less frequent but they still exist, sometimes left in an attempt to mislead potential clients and damage the good reputation of trusted professional moving companies.<\/p>\n See also<\/strong>: How to avoid moving scams<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Spotting fake online reviews for trained professionals is as easy as identifying a zebra in a herd of wild horses. But for people with little experience in online reviewing, it can be hard to detect fake moving company reviews, especially when they have no idea what to look for in the first place.<\/p>\n So, how to tell if a moving review is fake or genuine?<\/p>\n Perfect movers do not exist \u2013 even the very best moving companies in the business have aspects they can improve. Therefore, adulatory moving reviews that are irrationally peppered with nothing but praise, compliments, and superlatives are usually fake.<\/p>\n Be especially suspicious of impossible combinations such as \u201cthe cheapest movers out there\u201d and \u201cbest moving services ever\u201d.<\/p>\n The chances of dissatisfied customers leaving unfavorable consumer reviews about a moving company are much greater simply because they are adversely affected at the time of posting them.<\/p>\n Interestingly, too negative online reviews can also turn out to be fake under specific circumstances, so don\u2019t trust apparent defamatory\u00a0or strictly offensive moving reviews that give no useful information you can use.<\/p>\n The majority of genuine moving reviews offer a brief summary of the good points and bad points of the move, plus the facts they provide are relevant and straight to the point. At least that\u2019s what most real reviewers will include in their reviews.<\/p>\n On the other hand, moving reviews that go into the smallest details to convince people of the amazing quality of the moving service can be false.<\/p>\n Most fake online customer reviews have one trait in common \u2013 they are so general and so broad that they never offer any specifics about the residential move. And how could they when the actual move never happened, right?<\/p>\n Ignore the number of great\u2019s, best\u2019s and wow\u2019s in the review, just look for any actual details and substantial information that you can help you make the right decision.<\/p>\n Identical review structures, recurrent language forms, and comparable writing styles are usually red flags of fake moving reviews. Keep in mind that a great number of false online reviews come from individuals who get paid to write them, so repetitive patterns are to be expected.<\/p>\n Also, if the name of the moving company gets repeated more than once in the consumer review, then that\u2019s probably a failed attempt at cheap advertising.<\/p>\n Genuine moving reviews should sound like they were written by ordinary people with no honorary degrees in online marketing and PR. Fake online reviews tend to use a more uncommon language or specific jargon words in order to get their message across. The punctuation of false reviews can sometimes be weird too, and the usage of ALL CAPS seems to be common practice.<\/p>\n Would you or any of your friends ever use such a language for a simple moving review?<\/p>\n Believe it or not, detecting fake online reviews about moving companies can be kind of fun! When was the last time you played the FAKE REVIEW OR GENUINE REVIEW<\/em><\/strong> guessing game?<\/p>\n People who get paid to write fake reviews often go too far in their attempt to sound more persuasive. One classical example of normally false moving reviews is when moving company employees are mentioned by name.<\/p>\n \u201cMike and his team were the best!\u201d<\/em><\/strong> Seriously? Do you even remember the name of the company that you hired for your last move?<\/p>\n If you suspect a handful of online customer reviews about a single mover to be fake, take a quick look at the publication date and time. If the overly positive and similarly structured reviews were published almost all at once, then something is definitely fishy there.<\/p>\n As mentioned above, it\u2019s not always easy to detect fake online reviews about movers. Use the tell-tale signs above to know who to trust but don\u2019t forget to follow your hunches as well. The good news is that the top moving company review websites as of today – MyMovingReviews<\/em><\/a> and Yelp<\/em><\/a> – have advanced filtering systems that detect fake online customer reviews and stop those suspicious reviews from being published.<\/p>\nHow to spot fake online reviews about movers?<\/h2>\n
#1. Overly positive<\/h3>\n
#2. Overly negative<\/h3>\n
#3. Excessively descriptive<\/h3>\n
#4. Too general<\/h3>\n
#5. Uncharacteristic repetition<\/h3>\n
#6. Unnatural language<\/h3>\n
#7. Usage of personal names<\/h3>\n
#8. Publication date and time<\/h3>\n